CONTROLLED INCREASE. 
267 
ing brood and stored honey. We thus keep the 
queen up to her work, and the nurses of the parent 
stock busy — a process by which both colonies are made 
much stronger than they could be without it; and, 
by the time the young queen is laying, instead of her 
hive being utterly broodless, so that its population 
keeps shrinking for three weeks — a fact which almost 
always makes a stock useless for honey-production — 
she is surrounded by brood in all stages. For these 
great advantages, the old queen has to pay the in- 
significant penalty of a little greater strain upon her 
egg-producing powers. Two small colonies, having 
one queen between them, can in this way often be 
made as well off as though they had two. 
Making three out of twof previously described as 
applicable to both skeps and frame hives, may, with 
the latter, advantageously take the following slight 
modification ; On a fine day, when the bees are flying 
briskly, remove half the combs, one by one, from a 
colony occupying, e.g., Stand II., page 253 ; which 
combs, in my opinion, especially if we intend to re- 
queen immediately, should embrace half the store and 
half the brood-nest of the hive under operation. 
Shake or brush off every bee, placing the combs in 
order in a new hive, and then fill up, in both cases, 
by combs or foundation. I have frequently seen the 
shaking cause much disorder, and the loss of many 
bees, the combs being jerked over the tops of the 
exposed frames. Instead, by removing the dummy 
altogether, or pushing it well on one side, secure a 
gap of 2in. or so. Then, in this gap, raise the frame, 
by the ears, 5in. or bin., and bring it sharply down. 
